Prisoners with disabilities are neglected and abused in Australia

This article sent in from Human Rights Watch (7 February 2018), provides a glimpse of the mistreatment of disabled people locked up in Australia’s prison system.

People with disabilities in prisons across Australia are at serious risk of sexual and physical violence, and are disproportionately held in solitary confinement for 22 hours a day, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 93-page report, “I Needed Help, Instead I Was Punished: Abuse and Neglect of Prisoners with Disabilities in Australia,” examines how prisoners with disabilities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners, are at serious risk of bullying, harassment, violence, and abuse from fellow prisoners and staff. Prisoners with psychosocial disabilities – mental health conditions – or cognitive disabilities, can spend days, weeks, months, and sometimes even years, locked up alone in detention or safety units.

State and federal governments should end the use of solitary confinement for prisoners with disabilities, ensure that appropriate services are available to meet their needs, and more effectively screen prisoners for disabilities as they enter prison.

“Being locked up in prison in Australia can be extraordinarily stressful for anyone, but is particularly traumatic for prisoners with disabilities,” said Kriti Sharma, disability rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “The services to support a prisoner with a disability just aren’t there. And worse, having a disability puts you at high risk of violence and abuse.”

Human Rights Watch investigated 14 adult prisons across Western Australia and Queensland and interviewed 275 people, including 136 current or recently released prisoners with disabilities, as well as prison staff, health and mental health professionals, lawyers, academics, activists, family members or guardians, and government officials.

People with disabilities, particularly psychosocial or cognitive disabilities, are dramatically overrepresented in the criminal justice system in Australia – 18 percent of the country’s population, but almost 50 percent of people entering prison.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprise 28 percent of Australia’s full-time adult prison population, but just 2 percent of the national population. Within this group, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities are even more likely to end up behind bars.

However, prisons fail to adequately identify people with disabilities and are ill-equipped to meet their needs, often lacking the most basic services.

In 9 out of 14 prisons, prisoners with physical disabilities had to either wait for access to a bathroom, or else shower, urinate, or defecate in humiliating conditions because bathrooms were not accessible. “Toilets are not accessible,” one prisoner said. “I can’t get my chair in. I have to pee in a bottle.” Another said: “I have to wear a nappy every day. I don’t feel like a man; I feel like my dignity is taken away.”

The clear majority of Western Australian and Queensland prisons are overcrowded. In nine prisons, people were often forced to “double-up,” with two and sometimes three people in a cell built for one. Sharing cells can also place prisoners with disabilities at heightened danger of verbal, physical, or sexual violence.

Among those interviewed, 41 people said they had suffered physical violence, and another 32 sexual violence, by fellow prisoners or staff. Due to stigma and fear of reprisals, sexual violence is hidden and hard to document, but ever-present in both male and female prisons.

Some prisoners with disabilities with high support needs have “prison-carers” – other prisoners whom prison authorities pay to look after them. In one prison, staff told Human Rights Watch that six out of eight carers were convicted sex offenders and one of them regularly raped the prisoner with a disability in his charge.

Prisoners in solitary confinement typically spend 22 hours or more a day locked in small cells, sealed with solid doors, and even contact with staff may be wordless.

Nearly all solitary confinement units Human Rights Watch visited were full and most prisoners with disabilities interviewed had spent time in one. While solitary confinement can be psychologically damaging to any prisoner, its effects can be particularly detrimental for someone with a psychosocial or cognitive disability.

Human Rights Watch found that some prisoners can spend years in prolonged solitary confinement. One man with a psychosocial disability has spent more than 19 years in solitary confinement in a maximum security unit.

Under international standards, the “confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact,” amounts to solitary confinement. According to the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, the imposition of solitary confinement “on persons with mental disabilities is cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

“Hauling people into the detention unit or safety unit has become common practice for prisoners with mental health conditions,” Sharma said. “Without proper training and alternatives, staff often feel they have no option but to lock them up in solitary confinement.”

State and Territory governments should conduct regular and independent monitoring of prisons to investigate conditions of confinement for prisoners with disabilities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners, and ensure they do not face abuse,

Human Rights Watch said. Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and the Northern Territory should create an office of the inspector of custodial services that is independent, has adequate resources, and reports directly to parliament.

Prisons should immediately put in place effective systems to screen prisoners with disabilities when they enter prison and provide adequate access to support and mental health services. They should ensure that all prison staff receive regular, gender- and culturally sensitive training on interacting with people with disabilities.

Most importantly, State and Territory government should end solitary confinement for prisoners with disabilities.

“Australian officials should immediately set up inquiries into the use of solitary confinement of prisoners with disabilities, with a view to ending this dehumanizing practice,” Sharma said.